Going East….to West –3

Lewis and Clark Expedition : Background

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  Jefferson was interested in the West long before Louisiana Purchase on political and also on scientific grounds. He had asked George Rogers Clark, who had led Virginia militia in the 1778 invasion of the Illinois country, to consider leading an exploratory expedition to the West but the latter had declined. John Ledyard, who had accompanied Captain James Cook on his third voyage in search of the Northwest Passage in 1776 had conceived of a grand scheme of exploring a trade route across Siberia and through North America from west to east. Jefferson, serving then as the US ambassador to France advanced him ‘small amount of money and larger measures of personal support’. Ledyard was arrested by the Russians before he could leave Siberia.

Sometime in 1791 Jefferson made the acquaintance of French botanist Andre Michaux. While staying in the United States, Michaux began to consider an expedition to the Pacific and brought his idea to the American Philosophical Society in 1792  and impressed Jefferson who was the vice president of the Society. Jefferson raised money for Michaux and wrote exploration instructions for him which were to serve as the first draft for his later directions to Lewis. But by 1796 Michaux was no more interested in going to the Pacific.

It was Alexander Mackenzie’s 1801 best selling book describing the author’s journeys through North America and the prospects of the lucrative fur business that galvanized Jefferson into action, setting Lewis and Clark expedition in motion. He chose his own secretary Capt Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition. Capt Lewis co-opted his old Army friend and younger brother of George Rogers Clark mentioned above, William Clark for the Expedition. Although the object of the mission in Jefferson’s own words was “to explore the Missouri River and such principal stream of it, as by its source and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent for the purpose of of commerce”, his further instructions to Lewis went way beyond latter’s  main task. Jefferson also directed Lewis to report on the topography, flora and fauna and the natives living in the area of his expedition and their characteristics.